This document constitutes the deliverable D7.1, which reports on the upgrading the basic control and measurement equipment activities on Sendzimir rolling mill (ZRM) at SIJ Acroni production plant. SIJ Acroni is a producer of flat rolled steel products. Beside steel quarto plates, SIJ Acroni produces also non-oriented electrical steel, hot rolled coils and sheets in special grades. The key equipment for rolled coils and sheets is the ZRM rolling mill for cold rolling. The main equipment of the SIJ Acroni ZRM line dates back to 1974. Also, the control equipment that was in use before the upgrade was mostly from that time. In recent years, the risk of electric failures on the ZRM line has increased significantly. In addition, due to issues at ZRM, the number of technological stoppages and the amount of scrap have also increased. On top of that, the old control technology was inadequate in terms of maintenance, it was difficult to provide spare parts, and implementation of advanced process control and monitoring approaches promoted by I4.0 was severely limited. Due to all these reasons SIJ Acroni decided to retrofit the control system of their ZRM. During the project modernization activities the ZRM was retrofitted with new (last generation) automation and control equipment (programmable logic controller, controllers for DC drivers, sensors for measuring different process parameters, new control cabinets) and related control software (control of drivers, speed, tension, automatic gauge control, …).

Above all, during the modernization of ZRM special focus was given to enhanced process monitoring possibilities, in order to enable further activities that are necessary to advance current practice and achieve complete digital support of ZRM operation, i.e. the realization of UC1, covered in WP7. With the modernization SIJ Acroni is now able to collect all necessary process data, which are needed to build, improve and implement the supportive solutions that will be based on the data analytics and developed ZRM model. These solutions will enable production optimization, i.e. for process diagnostics, adaption/learning procedures and process optimization.

In the long run, the ZRM process retrofitting experience will provide SIJ Acroni a playground where different technological approaches could be tested and validated, and best solutions and practices could be identified (digital infrastructure, data analytics approaches, digitalization platform selection). In this sense, the ZRM modernization experience will provide an important basis for establishing and defining future process modernization approaches and unified digitalization infrastructure of the entire production.